I’ve looked every where with no success. Does anyone know roughly what percent of classes are taught by TA’s?
Thanks
<1%. Mostly summer classes.
In my experience (and the general norm), there are no lectures taught by TA’s (the only exception was one time when the Professor was sick and he had a TA cover for him - but most of the time that a professor is sick, they’ll get another professor to cover for them). Recitations will be taught by TA’s. Many summer classes will be taught by PhD students (who are normally finishing their 3rd or 4th year). These PhD students are only 1 or 2 years away from being real professors themselves, so teaching a summer course gives them the experience they need for their future.
Thanks
They don’t show that number because it is essentially zero.
In engineering, TA’s are not allowed to teach new material. That is part of what your are getting at a top school. TA’s can handle recitation, help with questions and assignments, and grade papers.
I am sure it may happen occasionally on an exception basis, for example if a prof is in the hospital, but I think even then they have to get a special approval, and the duration is supposed to be limited, so it could happen for a couple of days, but not for the semester.
But if you are counting on recitation as the place to get your questions answered, it still matters a lot. I had some god awful experiences with bad recitation TAs in college. Not at Penn, but it is the same everywhere.